Cuban-born instructor Javier Dubrocq, 46, was arrested after Sarasota Police went to a house on Indian Beach Lane in August 2012, after a tip about a marijuana grow house. They reported they smelled marijuana from outside, but no one answered the door.

The officers then went next door, where Dubrocq lives in a house he owns with his wife. They also own the house that had the suspected grow house, though Dubrocq says he had rented the garage apartment there to an acquaintance who had not been seen of late.

Described by police as cooperative, Dubrocq used a key to help them enter the garage apartment. A report says 33 pot plants were found under bright grow lights operated with timers.

Police say Dubrocq admitted knowing about the marijuana. A report also said he admitted he “had watered the plants earlier that day.”

But Dubrocq, who speaks English with a heavy Cuban accent that can be hard to understand, says that was a misunderstanding because he had not watered the plants and didn't say he had.

“They understood wrong,” Dubrocq told me.

His lawyer, Ron Filipkowski, says no one had watered the plants for quite a while, it seems. Despite the timed lights and elaborate set up, he said, the plants were long neglected, to the point many were dead and worthless.

A Sarasota police spokeswoman just told me that a detective says much the same about the state of the marijuana.

“The plants were in poor condition and dying,” Detective Robert Armstrong said.

The ballet instructor was arrested, six days after the police visit, on a warrant charging him with cultivation of marijuana.

But prosecutors stalled for more than six months while deciding what do with the case. Finally — in late March — they announced a decision not to file any charge.

Defense lawyer Filipkowski, who says he thought that might well happen, chuckled when he heard the reason stated in the state attorney's decline memo, because it concluded just what his client had said was likely.

The memo says the unnamed tipster had been on probation, and was facing a new charge of cultivating marijuana when he supposedly aided police as a “confidential informant,” by telling them about the garage growhouse and claiming it was Dubrocq's operation. Prosecutors developed big doubts about his credibility, but not just because the tipster sounded unreliable and desperate.

The memo says that “there is a belief that this could have been the CI's own grow house . . .”

The months Dubrocq spent waiting for that decision not to file were tense, “literally the hardest time in my life,” the ballet teacher told me.

Servian said that despite someone's attempt to make the teacher seem like a menace to kids, the Sarasota Ballet is more than satisfied of Dubrocq's innocence on a charge never even filed. None of it had a thing to do with his excellent ballet instruction with children, she said, and he remains popular and much respected by students and parents.

“We have the utmost faith in Javier,” Servian said.

Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.

<p>Someone's been anonymously giving reporters packets of information about an arrest, last year, of a popular ballet instructor who works with kids.</p><p>Former Sarasota mayor Mary Anne Servian, now managing director at the Sarasota Ballet, is pretty sure she knows who is trying to get the teacher fired.</p><p>It won't work, she says, because the man is a really good teacher and a good guy.</p><p>“It's a disgruntled ballet mom,” Servian says, with confidence — one who thought her daughter wasn't getting the coaching attention she deserved when she was a student there.</p><p>Some Sarasota Ballet parents and management members got similar arrest info packets, Servian told me.</p><p>The one I got tells about half of the story.</p><p>Cuban-born instructor Javier Dubrocq, 46, was arrested after Sarasota Police went to a house on Indian Beach Lane in August 2012, after a tip about a marijuana grow house. They reported they smelled marijuana from outside, but no one answered the door.</p><p>The officers then went next door, where Dubrocq lives in a house he owns with his wife. They also own the house that had the suspected grow house, though Dubrocq says he had rented the garage apartment there to an acquaintance who had not been seen of late.</p><p>Described by police as cooperative, Dubrocq used a key to help them enter the garage apartment. A report says 33 pot plants were found under bright grow lights operated with timers.</p><p>Police say Dubrocq admitted knowing about the marijuana. A report also said he admitted he “had watered the plants earlier that day.”</p><p>But Dubrocq, who speaks English with a heavy Cuban accent that can be hard to understand, says that was a misunderstanding because he had not watered the plants and didn't say he had.</p><p>“They understood wrong,” Dubrocq told me.</p><p>His lawyer, Ron Filipkowski, says no one had watered the plants for quite a while, it seems. Despite the timed lights and elaborate set up, he said, the plants were long neglected, to the point many were dead and worthless.</p><p>A Sarasota police spokeswoman just told me that a detective says much the same about the state of the marijuana. </p><p>“The plants were in poor condition and dying,” Detective Robert Armstrong said.</p><p>The ballet instructor was arrested, six days after the police visit, on a warrant charging him with cultivation of marijuana.</p><p>But prosecutors stalled for more than six months while deciding what do with the case. Finally — in late March — they announced a decision not to file any charge.</p><p>Defense lawyer Filipkowski, who says he thought that might well happen, chuckled when he heard the reason stated in the state attorney's decline memo, because it concluded just what his client had said was likely.</p><p>The memo says the unnamed tipster had been on probation, and was facing a new charge of cultivating marijuana when he supposedly aided police as a “confidential informant,” by telling them about the garage growhouse and claiming it was Dubrocq's operation. Prosecutors developed big doubts about his credibility, but not just because the tipster sounded unreliable and desperate.</p><p>The memo says that “there is a belief that this could have been the CI's own grow house . . .”</p><p>The months Dubrocq spent waiting for that decision not to file were tense, “literally the hardest time in my life,” the ballet teacher told me.</p><p>Servian said that despite someone's attempt to make the teacher seem like a menace to kids, the Sarasota Ballet is more than satisfied of Dubrocq's innocence on a charge never even filed. None of it had a thing to do with his excellent ballet instruction with children, she said, and he remains popular and much respected by students and parents. </p><p>“We have the utmost faith in Javier,” Servian said.</p><p><EL-5.8></p><p><EL-1><RA@BYLINERULE,0,4,0,0,0.5,50>Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.</p>